Making sense of educational inequalities and 'justice' by youth in a competitive system: Some empirical analysis from Hong Kong

• In Event: Education access and inequality around the globe

Proposal

Globally, rising inequality is broadly considered as one of the most pressing social problems which are deep-penetrating to many national educational systems. Education has become part of the broader structures of inequality which are self-reinforcing and cumulative (Lamont & Pierson, 2019). The literature of social equalities and education is concerned with how education changes from an equality-generating social institution to an inequality-inducing one. Within the expansive literature, social class, family capitals and education have been significant and ever-timely topics (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977; Lareau, 1987; Ball, 1993; Whitty, 2001; Walker, 2003; Bathmaker, Ingram & Waller, 2013). In the case of Hong Kong, its 'high-performing' educational system (Marsh & Lee, 2014; You & Morris, 2016) embedding Confucian 'educational desire' (Kipnis, 2011; Yang, 2016; Tang, Tsui & Chau, 2018), it sees a growing strand of research that has addressed the problem in view of the relationship between social class and family resources in affecting education (Post, 2004; Post, 2010), school segregation (Zhou & Wang, 2016; Lam, Byun & Lee, 2019), mechanisms of inequality (Chiu & Walker, 2007), family effects on student achievement (Chiu & Ho, 2006), and perceptions of social justice among disadvantaged students (Yuen, 2018). According to Post (2010), Hong Kong students from families in the top 25% of the income distribution are more likely to study at universities than their counterparts. Up until the 1990s when access to Hong Kong higher education was ‘massified’' (Wan, 2011; Jung & Postiglione, 2015; Tang, 2015), family resources played a diminishing role on access to all levels of education (Post, 2004). However, since the 1990s, the opposite trend has been observed as access to postsecondary education became more dependent on family resources (Post, 2003). The policy of creating the private sector of new postsecondary institutions tends to segregate disadvantaged students who cannot afford the tuition fees.

Meanwhile, school privatisation exacerbates the inequalities since the 2000s. Segregation in Hong Kong’s schools increased steadily in the recent decade and is the worst in Greater China (Zhou & Wang, 2016). Students from privileged backgrounds predominantly attend private and international schools while their working-class and lower-middle-class peers attend public schools. Participation of ethnic minority students in upper secondary and post-secondary education is also lower than the majority (Tsung & Gao, 2012; Bhowmik, Kennedy, & Hue, 2018). Chiu and Walker (2007) explain the mechanisms of inequality in terms of tracking. Hong Kong’s schools are classified into three ‘bands’ based on entering students’ primary school academic achievements. Within schools, there is usually tracking and schools tend to place teachers with relatively lower teaching capacity into lower-tracks. The impacts of socio-cultural reproduction are prevalent via school socio-economic status (Keung & Ho, 2019). Students have higher educational expectations if they are studying at a school of a higher socio-economic status (Frempong et al., 2012).

However, there is a lack of research which holistically examines how young people - from different backgrounds and ‘positionings’ - approach, perceive and consider the notion of ‘justice’ and legitimise the larger trend of educational inequalities. This paper intends to fill the research gap, using the empirical example of Hong Kong’s competitive educational system, by probing the diverse youth voices and perceptions about how they understand the extent to which education is performing equalising functions. The paper addresses two research questions:
1. What and how did the different social groups of young people in Hong Kong experience and understand the phenomenon of educational inequalities?
2. What contexts have influenced the young people’s experiences of the phenomenon and their understanding of the notion of ‘justice’?

This research uses the conceptual framework by Fraser (2008) to guide the data collection and analysis processes. The framework is concerned with the dimensions of (1) redistribution, (2) recognition and (3) representation as the significant features of equity and educational policy and practice. It highlights the distributive principles of justice which recognise that educational institutions are not equitable in their distribution of benefits and that youth people are not equitably positioned in their capacity to take up these benefits (Keddie, 2012). In the case of Hong Kong, young people are stratified into different social worlds and educational realities according to the institutional context of their schools. They are not equitably positioned in their capacity to capitalise the educational opportunities and resources. The key social divisions and groupings are (a) mainstream local high schools (from different bandings, compositions of locals/ ethnic minorities/ immigrant students), (b) private schools, and (c) international schools. Usually young people from better off families study in the latter two categories and they are positioned in a stronger capacity to take up the benefits of recognition and representation.

This study was informed by a phenomenological approach which understands the phenomenon of educational inequalities as an ‘object’ of human experience (van Manen, 1991). It aims to describe what a social group of youth have in common as they experience a phenomenon collectively. This paper understands their individual experiences with the phenomenon of rising educational inequalities in Hong Kong and reports the textural description and structural description of the meaning and universal essence of their lived experiences.

The research adopted purposeful sampling and maximum variation strategy to interview 15 young people from the social groups of (a) mainstream local high schools (b) private schools (c) international schools (5 from each group). To increase the likelihood that the findings will reflect different perspectives and elucidate the particular, students or graduates of different social class, gender, ethnicity, academic achievement, citizenship status were purposefully targeted.

Preliminary analysis of this research found that there are diverse subjectivities and sensibilities among young people from different social classes and positionings in understanding the extent to which education can impart agency to disadvantaged students for socio-economic mobility or becomes a mechanism which self-reinforces cumulative advantage and develops durable forms of inequality. However, there is a consensual ‘legitimising ideology’ (Wong, 2013) that illustrates the legitimation of social inequality. For example, students of mediocre achievement tend to consider themselves accountable for the educational ‘failure’ and therefore regard the competitive education system as meritocratic.

Authors

• Hei-hang Hayes Tang, The Education University of Hong Kong

• Beatrice Oi-yeung Lam, The Open University of Hong Kong

• Yau Yu Chan, The Education University of Hong Kong